Infotech Sector Lost Rs 12,176 Crore Mkt Cap In Ten Sessions

The market capitalisation of the information technology (IT) sector has plunged by Rs 12,176 crore in the last ten trading sessions to Rs 80,417 crore on Monday, from Rs 92,593 crore seen on July 8.

Of the 206 actively traded IT scrips, as many as 192 reported a drop in value during the period. The sharp decline of the US-based Nasdaq stock exchange following accounting concerns impacted the local software counters.

The top five losers shed over Rs 8,887 crore accounting for over 70 per cent of the total drop in the IT sector capitalisation.

Wipro's market cap dipped the largest by Rs 4,464 crore to Rs 28,157 crore.

The company's lower-than-expected performance (a drop of 5 per cent in net profit) for quarter ended June 2002 (despite a 15 per cent growth in sales) owing to pricing pressure dampened sentiment.

The capitalisation of Infosys Technologies fell by Rs 2,229 crore to Rs 20,425 crore. For HCL Technologies, it slipped by Rs 1,043 crore to Rs 6,125 crore, for Satyam Computer it fell by Rs 827 crore and for Digital Globalsoft, it was down Rs 324 crore.

Second-line IT scrips were also battered during the period. MOH registered a largest percentage drop in market capitalisation among these counters, plummeting 57 per cent to Rs 3.75 crore.

Lan Eseda, Scintilla Software, Jindal Online.com, Cauvery Software, Financial Technologies, Nexus Software, SRG Infotech were the other companies that reported a more than 30 per cent drop in capitalisation.